This Summer Institute for Secondary School Teachers (Grades 6-12) is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and offered by The University of Texas at El Paso. Borderlands narratives have historically been seen as peripheral to the development of American history and identity. In middle and high-school textbooks across the country, borderland populations have received minimal attention. The binational spaces border people occupy have been portrayed as dangerous, illegitimate, and as part of a distinct counter-culture. We aim to place these forgotten regions and their populations at the center of the debate about American history and identity by focusing on the multicultural region and narratives of the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez metroplex.
A Summer Institute (Residential) for Secondary School Teachers (Grades 6–12)
at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in collaboration with Center for
Inter-American and Border Studies (CIBS) and Institute of Oral History (IOH).
Faculty and Visiting Lecturers
Leading experts and
award-winning scholars will lead these comprehensive storytelling workshops.
In conjunction with inquiry-based activities centered in the classroom, invited scholars will
also take part in several pre-planned field trips to local archives and repositories, historical
sites, and cultural venues.
Institute Dates: July 20 – August 3, 2025
Over the course of the two-week long Institute, Summer Scholars will be asked to become skilled
storytellers through the use of a variety of methodologies that include history, literature,
art, film, ournalism, music, and
theater—to develop their own creative ways of implementing diverse storytelling methodologies
into their teaching philosophies in order to more holistically reflect on the complex histories
and identities of border peoples and of the binational spaces they inhabit.
Application Process
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